Rhubarb Rhubarb

Tis the season. Despite all the rain and slow start to the season, I ventured out to the Farmer's Market a weekend back. I was claustrophobic to the crowd. It seems we are all clawing to get out into the open air and get down to business.

The one thing that kept pulling me back in was the yearly crop of rhubarb. Like asparagus, it is one of the first truly local crops to ripen in these early summer weeks. So I grabbed a bunch for a delectable Strawberry/ Rhubarb pie. My infamous crust, a bit of cloves and cardamom made an almost perfect pie. It could have used a bit more starch to thicken it but.....

On eating it last night, Jeff and I were trying to figure if it was a fruit or vegetable defined by its growing conditions. I was partly right by thinking it an herb. It is defined by Wikipedia as an "herbaceous perennial." It grows as a tuber with stalks and large leaves. But instead of eating the roots like carrot or radish, we eat the stems. Think celery. It also has a colored history of being classified as both a vegetable and a fruit. It technically became a fruit in 1947 with advances in sugar to make it more palatable in general cooking. This has something to do with tariffs which are supposedly more expensive for vegetables than fruit and thus encouraged the market for the plant.

Other fun facts: Crops in the UK are harvested in hothouse sheds by candelight to produce a sweeter and more tender stalk. The old adage is true that the leaves contain some toxic and poisonous chemicals, but they are in such low amounts that a human would have to consume vast amounts to actually be affected. And in case you didn't know, it has laxative effects which can be helpful in constipation. Just saying.